


A Grimm Tomorrow

by GoddessTiera



Series: Five times Grimm was there for Nova, and one time he wasn't. [1]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Embarrassment, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27334027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoddessTiera/pseuds/GoddessTiera
Summary: Grimm and Nova meet when she lands her ship at Stellar Bay.
Relationships: Female Captain/Grimm
Series: Five times Grimm was there for Nova, and one time he wasn't. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995784
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	A Grimm Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Part One of my Captain Nova and her adorkable MSI boyfriend Grimm.

"Well that took considerable more effort than expected."

Nova couldn't argue with Max there but she hadn't been able to turn the MSI guard, Grimm, down. There was something about him that had momentarily knocked her off her game and she had an overwhelming urge to help him, even if it took several hours to track down his wayward poster. 

"Sorry about that guys. Why don't y'all go relax somewhere and I'll take this back to Grimm,” she replied, wiggling the poster in the air.

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” exclaimed Felix, who took off faster than a sprat.

“I think I’ll go find a nice place to eat before I return to the ship.”

“Later Max.”

She waved over her shoulder as she headed towards the landing pad but was disappointed to find there was now a different guard standing there.

“Excuse me?”

He turned towards her and replied, “Can I help you miss?”

“Where is the other guy, Grimm?”

“His shift ended a few minutes ago. You just missed him.”

She sighed heavily and headed off to track him down.

******************************************

Finding him was, unfortunately, proving to be more difficult than it should have been. She had checked MSI headquarters first, but he had already changed out of his armor and left so she had been wandering around town for the last ten minutes hoping to run into him.

She was beginning to think she was out of luck, resigning herself to try again tomorrow when he was hopefully working, when she finally spotted him. He was headed towards her and in her rush to go greet him, she stepped on a bottle in the street which immediately rolled, sending her backwards, resulting in her landing on her ass with a loud thump.

“Ow.” That was definitely gonna leave a bruise.

“Oh! Are you hurt ma’am?” Grimm, who of course witnessed her humiliation, rushed over and bent down to check on her. She glanced over at the two guys snickering at her before shaking her head. 

“Only my pride.”

He smiled at her then, a smile so warm it could melt ice, and apparently her insides too, before standing and offering her his hand.

She took it and tried to ignore how nice the roughness of his palm felt against hers as he pulled her effortlessly to her feet. 

She reluctantly let go of his hand and dusted herself off, trying hard not to let the embarrassment take over. So much for making a good impression. “Thanks for helping me up.”

“You’re welcome. Nova, right?” 

"Yeah." She had accidentally given him her real name when he'd asked. She had kicked herself for that one. Only her crew and Phineas knew she wasn't Alex Hawthorne but something about Grimm made it difficult to focus. She wasn’t used to feeling so off balance.

“Oh! This is for you.” She had almost forgotten the poster, which was thankfully unharmed. 

“Is that my poster?” he asked as she handed it over.

“Yeah. You weren’t back at the landing dock so I came looking for you.”

His eyes lit up and he hurried to unroll it so he could inspect it.

“Would you look at that! The Rizzo’s logo is nice and bright, and you can still smell the ink in Mr. Holcomb’s signature! I can’t thank you enough.” He smiled brightly at her before continuing, “Still, you can have the bits I was gonna spend at the bar this week. And you know what? Take my old tossball blocker, too. Never get the chance to use it these days.”

She grabbed the blocker, it would make a nice addition to the random junk she had been collecting through her travels, but pushed his bits back to him. 

“I have a better idea. Why don’t you buy a girl a drink and you can teach me about tossball and the guy on the poster?”

She didn’t think it was possible for him to look any happier than he did at that moment. She wondered if the excitement was for her or just the chance to talk about something he loved but she couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. 

********************************************

"And then the hacker..." Grims voice trailed off but Nova hadn't noticed. The guys from earlier were sitting on the other end of the bar and they were pointing in her direction and laughing. 

"Nova. Nova?”

He waved his hand in front of her face and she startled a bit before apologizing.

“I’m sorry. The jackasses who were laughing at me when I fell are over there, still laughing at me. I don’t like being laughed at.” She’d had enough of that when she was little, before she learned to use her natural charm to her advantage. Get the biggest on your side, and the others were too scared to touch you. 

He followed her gaze and frowned. “Ignore those two. One snores so loud he rattles the walls and the other pisses himself when he drinks too much.” 

She burst out laughing, drawing stares from the other patrons but she was surprised to find that she didn’t care.

“That’s better. You have a nice laugh.” His tone was so earnest, the complement made her blush. Something new was fluttering in her chest and she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with it so she quickly grabbed her drink and downed the rest in one gulp. 

“I don’t know why someone like you would care about two jerks like them anyway. You’re miles more interesting than they could ever be. Prettier too.” He stopped then, his eye wide. He clearly hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud. 

She on the other hand was doing her best not to act like a schoolgirl with a crush. Pretty wasn’t something she was used to being called but she liked it. At least, coming from him.

The background noise faded away and it was just the two of them, staring at each other. She was painfully aware of how close they were sitting now, his shoulder touching hers and without realizing it she started leaning towards him when someone dropped a bottle behind them and they both jumped, breaking the moment.

“Another round?” she asked, hoping to avoid talking about what had just happened.

“ ‘Fraid I’m outta bits,” he said, frowning.

“All my bits are on the ship. Parvati said she’d give them back when I proved myself to be “more responsible” with my purchases. I don’t know why she thinks I’m not responsible. Just because we had to eat a little on the lean side for a few days doesn’t mean that I didn’t need that Moon Man helmet ok?”

This time it was Grimm that burst out laughing. “Do you really have a Moon Man helmet?”

“I do! It’s just so weird! I couldn’t NOT buy it. It was listed as a helmet but you can’t see shit out of it! It sits proudly on display in my quarters.”  
He opened his mouth to reply but before he could a man called out to him.

“Grim! There you are! The tossball game starts in fifteen minutes, are you coming or not?” 

The man, who she assumed must work for MSI too, came running over to them.

“OH! I almost forgot.” He turned to her and she could see he was conflicted. As much as she wanted to keep talking to him, she could tell how much he wanted to go listen.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m feeling a bit tired. Think I will head back to the ship and get some rest.”

“I’ll walk you back. I have time.” He turned back to his friend. “I’ll meet you there.”

He stood and offered her his arm, which she took and they started walking towards the Unreliable. Neither of them spoke but it was a comfortable silence, just appreciating each other's company. She’d known Grimm half a day and she already felt comfortable in his presence. It was scary and new, but she also felt happy. It had been a long time since she felt happy. It was nice.

All too soon they reached their destination and it was time to say goodbye.

“I had fun tonight.”

“I did too. I’m glad I asked you to help me track down my poster.”

“Me too.”

She gave him her contact information and made him promise to write before reluctantly heading inside. She hoped there would be a reason to return to Stellar Bay soon.


End file.
